Long Time Coming
by Angkeats
Summary: Troy and Gabriella grew up as friends but a huge argument at senior prom sees them go their seperate ways at the same college for a time until Troy's secret forces them to face their past.
1. Hidden

**Hello all!**

**Here is my new Troyella Story, I hope you enjoy it!**

**Please comment if you want to read more.**

**A Long Time Coming**

Everybody wants to be loved  
Every once in a while  
We all need someone to hold onto  
Just like a helpless child, yeah  
Can you whisper in my ear  
Let me know it's alright

It's been a long time coming  
Down this road  
And now I know  
What I've been waitin' for  
And like a lonely highway  
I'm tryin' to get home  
Ooo, love's been a long time comin'

You can love for a lifetime  
You can love for a day  
You can think you've got everything  
But everything is nothing  
When you throw it away, yeah  
Then look in my eyes  
And I have it all once again

It's been a long time comin'  
Down this road  
And now I know  
What I've been waitin' for  
It's like a lonely highway  
I'm tryin' to get home  
Ooo, love's been a long time comin'

Didn't know I was lost  
Til you found me, uh huh  
Didn't know I was blind  
But now I see

Can you whisper in my ear?  
Let me know it's alright

It's been a long time comin'  
Down this road  
And now I know  
What I've been searchin' for  
Oooh, been a long long highway  
And now I see  
Ooo, love's been a long time  
Oooh been a long time  
Love's been a long time comin'

_***_

"_What's your name?" A pretty dark haired girl asked a six-year-old Troy as he kicked a tree stump in the playground_

"_Troy. What's yours?" He asked as he stopped kicking and frowned at her._

"_Gabriella. Let's play sandcastles," she said and took his hand as she led him to the sand pit and he began stubbing his toe into the soft loose material instead._

"_You're angry." She said intuitively and Troy folded his arms, sitting down and crossing his legs too._

"_I hate it here." He said and Gabi looked surprised, her tiny mouth pursing in confusion_

"_Why?" She wondered, not able to think of anything that she didn't like about school or Albuquerque_

"_I just do." He said and she had giggled_

"_You are a funny boy. Here…" She handed him a spade so he could help her fill her bucket with sand._

_He shoveled some sand in and watched as she carefully turned it and created a sand castle with a proud beam._

_Troy got up and kicked it over and Gabi's lip quivered before she burst into tears. Troy looked around him and not knowing what else to do, grabbed her hand._

"_I'm sorry," he said, his blue eyes wide as his bluntly cut brown hair fell on his forehead._

_Gabi whimpered and sniffled but her brown eyes had met his and they walked back to the classroom hand in hand as the whistle was blown for end of break._

_***_

Troy sat with his back against the huge tree in the yard of East High College and propped his forearms on his knees as he cast his head back and lost himself in his music.

He opened his eyes every few moments to check his surroundings and surveyed the students around him.

Some of his school friends had come to the same College but he didn't see many of them. With a basketball scholarship, his sport took up most of his time and his team-mates seemed to be the only ones he hung out with lately.

It wasn't that he wasn't popular. He was the captain of the basketball team and considered 'the man' by his team mates. He knew that girls got giggly around him and he'd been told several times he was a good-looking guy, but he tended to keep himself to himself and he liked it like that.

Troy Bolton was hiding a big secret and it was easier to avoid friendships of any kind than get close to people and have them find out the truth. And it would only be a matter of time before they found out the truth because he wouldn't be able to hide it much longer. And there was only one person that he actually would have told, but he couldn't.

He flicked his lashes up and caught sight of Gabriella Montez about twenty feet away, chatting with her friends Taylor and Nancy. It was like he had summoned her with his thoughts.

He chewed his lip as he watched her. Her long, curly, dark hair shimmied down her petite shoulders as she laughed and chatted animatedly. Her brown eyes were wide with expression. She wore a cute little denim hot pant suit that she managed to make sexy with calf boots and fishnet tights. Her eyes were dark with eyeliner; adding to her sex-kitten look.

He rolled his head down and propped his forehead with his fingers as she walked off, not even noticing he was there and he sighed, folding his arms across his knees and planting his face in them as he hid from the world and the memories that haunted him every time he saw her face.

_***_

"_Why are you crying?" Gabi asked her best friend Troy as he sobbed into his arms, propped up against the tree in his garden._

"_I'm not crying." Troy sniffled from beneath the safety of his sleeves._

_Gabi placed herself next to him and pressed her little lips together, a frown marring her smooth forehead as her mind worked overtime._

"_I cried when Mr. Teddy got trapped in the washing machine and almost drowned," she offered_

_Troy twisted his face in his arms then looked up at her "It's a teddy bear. It won't die." He said flatly._

"_Made you look," she smiled, resting her arm on his knee as her tiny body curled toward him. "Do you still hate it here?" She wondered._

_His blue eyes studied hers for a moment. "I hate my parents." He said._

"_Oh." She said, considering him, not knowing why he might feel like this. She only had her mom but she loved her. "You can share my mom if you like?" She suggested, sucking her lower lip._

_Troy nodded "Okay, deal."_

_***_

Gabi laughed with her friends as they went into college through the grand main entrance and she glanced over her shoulder at Troy, who was sat against the tree in the front yard with his head in his arms.

Her heart twisted at the sight, wondering what was wrong. She remembered when they had been inseparable and they'd told each other pretty much everything. She missed his hugs and his easy advice and she missed being the one he talked to. She had loved being that person.

She moved into the hallway, following her friends as she thought about the argument they'd had at the prom. And how they'd not spoken since. And although she still cared about him deep, deep down, she couldn't forgive him for ruining her prom night. The argument hadn't been their first, but it was the first time they hadn't made up.

Gabi sighed as she opened her locker and stashed her dance kit. She had enrolled in dance and drama classes at East High College and it took a lot of work to keep on top of it all along with her academic classes.

Right now she was struggling with balancing the work load and it seemed impossible to have some kind of social life and it was at times like this she would have gone to Troy without even thinking about it. But she couldn't and she wouldn't and she knew he wouldn't make the first move either, because that night had changed things irrevocably between them and there was absolutely no going back.

She dreaded passing him in the hallway because he would duck his gaze and it reminded her starkly that he was just as hurt as she was. The 'perfect moment' for them to talk had passed, leaving them like two bereft dinghies in the sea, buoying ever closer to each other, but never quite meeting.

.


	2. Pain

**Thank you so much for the fab reviews! And so many of them-keep it up lol.**

**CHAPTER 2**

_***_

"_Hold it still, Troy" Gabi begged gently _

_Troy held a squirming frog in his muddy hands and she tried to stroke its slimy back._

"_It doesn't like me!" He complained with a whine. "Anyway it's my birthday today." He said importantly; as though that gave him permission not to hold cold, wet amphibians._

"_Happy Eighth Birthday!" She beamed and kissed his cheek and his eyes widened as his grip loosened on the frightened creature and it hopped from his hands and into the grass._

_He blushed a little. "I'm sorry, I let it go." he said, staring at her, wondering why she had kissed him, but his young mind was easily distracted as he spotted a newt and crawled on his knees to stalk it._

"_Troy!" Gabi complained, dressed in an all in one dungaree suit which was now muddy, like her t-bar shoes. "This is bo-ring" she drew out the syllable to emphasise her emotion._

_When he ignored her and tracked the creature, she bundled on top of him and pushed him to the ground with a giggle. _

"_Tag, you're it!" She said and jumped up, running off and he smiled as he rolled up from the muddy ground and raced after her._

_He couldn't see her all of a sudden and he wondered if she had changed the game to hide and seek, like she sometimes did just to confuse him._

"_Gabi?" He called, a little nervous that she might be hiding and trip him in the dried grass._

_He heard a whimper and looked around him wildly and he saw her body, lain on the dry and prickly grass. He ran over and knelt next to her._

"_Are you okay?" He asked, not sure what to do and panicking because his mom and dad weren't here to tell him._

"_I hurt my ankle," she said and she leaned up to rub it._

_Troy remembered Gabi wrapping his arm after he had fallen out of the tree down here in the summer and he had unknowingly broken it. He stripped off his shirt and used it as a bandage to wrap around her ankle as tight as he could get it._

_He held out his hand and she took it, getting up and leaning on him as she limped back to safety with his arm around her back, his blue eyes deep and soulful as they flicked to hers in concern._

_***_

"Shit!" Troy panted heavily, his breaths coming in tight and painful wracks from his body, the sharp stab in his ribs undeniable and he couldn't go on, leaning down to rest his forearms on his knees as he closed his eyes against the acute lights dancing before them.

"Bolton! We don't stand for slackers!" The coach called "Get your butt down that gym or sit the bench on Friday!" He warned and he felt a hand land on his shoulders.

"What's up buddy?" Chad asked as Troy felt dizzy on opening his eyes and tried to stand.

"Just run, man, I'm good, don't worry," he assured him as he stood full length and waited for his view to stop swimming as he put one foot in front of another and tried to run again, tripping over his own toes and landing on the floor with a squeak as his shoes skidded on the shiny surface.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" The coach asked as he came over and placed a toe on Troy's backside, next to his kidneys.

Troy rolled over, forcing his foot from his flat body. "I tripped, that's all" He said, still struggling for breath.

"Something tells me that you've been over-doing the partying, Bolton" the coach insinuated, his brown hair flopping into his face and hiding his cold brown eyes. Troy had never seen eyes like them. He swiftly remembered Gabi's brown eyes, albeit a shade lighter and they shone a whisky colour in the sun, her eyes were the opposite- warm and inviting. And here was Coach Matthews, with brown eyes that were like cold, dead earth.

"No sir!" He said and scrambled to get up, but found his heavy and aching body was not co-operating.

"Mmm. Whatever the cause for your…accident…" He said the word distastefully and Troy was reminded of the severe expectations upon him to perform physically. "…Consider yourself bench-warmer Friday." He said and Troy sighed, rubbing his sweaty face.

"Yes, sir," he sighed as he rolled up, this time making it to his feet and Chad came over to him.

"Hey, dude, are you sick?" He asked as Troy looked into his friend's dark eyes and flicked his gaze up to his afro hair.

"Yeah, must be the 'flu." He said gently and walked from the gym floor, his shoulders dropped dejectedly, his arms tight with his tension and juxtaposing against his demeanor.

He slammed a locker door shut swiftly, the noise reverberating through the empty changing rooms and he sat on a bench, curling his body so that his forearms rested on his knees and he watched the sweat drip off his fringe and onto the floor. Drip, drip, drip. He took his fringe between two fingers and wrung out the moisture as he let his breathing slow.

Finally he got up with his shower kit and headed off to get clean.

---

Gabi rolled her sore ankle at the end of ballet class and leaned on the bar for support. It never had been the same since she twisted it that fall but it didn't usually hurt this much.

Everything seemed to hurt lately, all of her joints ached with the punishing schedule she was keeping with extra classes and her head was beginning to throb with it all, too.

It had been her own idea to make extra money by holding dance classes for the non-dance students but now she was realizing she had taken on too much.

She checked her watch and sighed gently as she made her way back to the changing rooms and she took her phone from her locker and she dialed a familiar number.

"Hey, girlfriend." Taylor greeted warmly.

"Hey, Tay." Gabi smiled softly into the phone .

"Where you at?" Taylor asked.

"I'm just done with ballet class, wanna grab a bite to eat?" She asked hopefully.

"Oh, honey, I'm meeting Chad, he's just finished practice. But you know what, come with us, we're getting pizza." She offered.

Gabi pressed her lips together gently. "No its okay, I don't want to ruin your date." She said softly.

"Honey, are you okay? Cause if you're not, I'll drop Chad in a heart beat," she said quickly.

How did she tell her best friend that she really didn't want to be alone tonight?

"I'm okay, I was just asking." She assured her with a voice that was firmer than her feelings.

"Okay well call me if you need me," she insisted.

"I will." Gabi rang off and headed into the shower.

She slung her dance kit bag across her body as she padded from the changing rooms in her soft yoga trousers and hoodie, her hair caught in a messy tangle on her head that she had to go and comb out with a great deal of pain and she had been so looking forward to ordering pizza for two. Now she had a whole night alone looming ahead of her.

The boys changing room door opened as she wandered down the hall and the noise of the latch going was loud enough to cause an echo down the vacuum of space as she lifted her eyes to see who had come out.

Troy stood there before her, his brown messy hair damp and curling as it dried on his forehead haphazardly and he was wearing a black t-shirt and his loose jeans, with his converse toes peeking out under the hems that were lower than intended as his jeans slid dangerously low on his hips.

He had one hand on the door handle as he had opened it and he was kind of frozen there, like he didn't know if he should reverse and close himself back in, or come out into the hallway and face her.

His blue eyes avoided hers and she stared at him until he finally met them. What she saw there cut her deeply. He had always had the most soulful eyes she had seen on a boy, truly like windows to his soul, and what she saw there pained her.

She took a hitching breath as the moment presented itself for her to speak, as he obviously was not going to.

She opened her mouth and took a further breath in to bolster her.

"Hey dude, you coming for pizza?" Chad's voice broke the eerie silence surrounding them as he came out of the locker room from behind Troy and touched his shoulder, flicking a glance at Gabi who blinked in stunned shock and closed her mouth, moving down the hall quickly past them.

Troy winced, letting out an angry breath. She was about to say something! Six months of nothing and she was about to break the dead lock. He wanted to call her name as she scurried down the hall and he almost did, but the flashback of the prom night threatened to spill loose and he forced it back, locking it up in his mind where it was safe and it couldn't hurt him.

"Nah, its okay." He said finally to Chad as Chad looked first down the hall at Gabi and then back to him.

"You spoken to her yet?" He asked.

"I thought we agreed not to talk about this." Troy said, the pain in his chest making his voice tight and his words clipped.

"Okay dude, just asking." Chad said gently, touching his shoulder again. "I'll catch you later," he said and ran off to meet Taylor, leaving Troy to go back to his dorm alone.


	3. Auction

**Oh man I absolutely loved the comments ******

**Has anyone else read The Death and Life of Charlie yet?**

**I'm freaking in love with Charlie. Wish I could write like that!**

**CHAPTER 3**

_***_

"_I am the emperor and you must do as I say!" Troy commanded as he stood atop a mound of soil, a plastic sword in his hand at his side which he brought upwards in a flourish and his golden cape fluttered behind him dramatically._

"_You're not an emperor, Troy and you should get down from there because that is an ant hill." Gabi relayed knowingly with her serious face as she folded her arms._

_She wished she had never given him her mom's old curtain to use as a cape now, she mused as her lip tucked up in one corner._

"_I AM the emperor and I am invincible!" He called loudly, running down the mound and off into the distance a little way and Gabi stood, unimpressed. _

_Boys were so weird. She cast her eyes toward the horizon where the sun was setting and the sky was painted with blues and reds and oranges as the sun slid down the back of the hills to rest for the night._

"_We have to go home now." She said, following him where he had wandered off into the field which lay at the back of their houses._

"_But I am the emperor!" He roared again and Gabi finally broke into giggles and Troy watched her as her nose scrunched up. "Queen Gabriella, take the throne next to me," he invited and she came up next to him where his face shone with the pink hue of the setting sun and he took her hand and sat in the grass as they leaned on each other to get balance, then dropped hands quickly as they got seated._

"_So Emperor Troy, what does the Kingdom hold for us?" She wondered, joining his little game as her young mind thought about things beyond her comprehension._

"_It holds lots of joy." He predicted and dug into his pocket, pulling out a worn paper bag and opening it, revealing her favourite sweets, pear drops. _

_She twisted her lips, not sure if she was allowed one or if he was going to pull the bag away if she tried to take one._

"_Here," he said with a small smile and took one out, aiming toward her mouth with it and she let him pop it in and then his mouth moved closer and kissed hers quickly._

_Gabi stood up in shock. "Ewww! Why did you do that?!" She cried, turning and running from him as tears filled her eyes and Troy watched her go, his little shoulders drooping as he sighed and watched the sun again, the cold wisps of night air wrapping around him and making him shiver as the sky darkened._

"_Troy, come on in now." Mrs. Montez called from the fence about ten feet back and he rolled up from his sitting position, pulling the curtain around him for warmth, seeing Gabi latched onto her mom's hand and knowing she had told her he was out here._

_He looked at her as he trekked up and climbed through the fence into their back yard and Mrs. Montez hugged him into her other side as the three of them made their way up to the house._

_***_

Troy tapped his pen against the table as his thoughts came crashing inwards, drowning out his mind of everything but what had happened in the gym at yesterday's practice. He asked the coach if he could miss practice until he was over his virus but he knew he was only kidding himself.

He wasn't going to get better in a week. He wasn't going to get better in a week or a month and if he didn't give up basketball, he might not get better at all.

His doctors had already warned him he was pushing a limit that shouldn't be pushed and it just might break on him. His tapping had become insistent and resounding and he found his hand being covered by the lecturer's, his blue eyes popping upwards as he lifted his chin from his left hand and met her gaze.

"Thanks for the beat, Mr. Bolton, but we are trying to make an announcement." Mrs. Neilson lifted her brows pointedly and she moved, revealing Taylor at the front of the class and he frowned, wondering why she was there as she wasn't in any of his classes.

"Good afternoon everyone!" She beamed. "I just wanted to come in today and let everyone know that I am organizing this year's charity fundraiser for East High and the fundraising team have decided that this year we are going to have a 'Boy Auction'." She explained and Troy's eyebrows lifted in surprise.

"The Principle has agreed that we can 'sell off' the basketball team one by one to raise funds for the local Children's Hospice." She continued.

"Whoa, wait!" Troy interrupted. "You're selling me and I didn't even get asked about it?" He called, shocked.

Taylor's steely eyes found him in the classroom and she smiled. "Ah there you are Troy. Yes, mm, I do remember asking you three times for a word but you told me you were 'busy'," she raised her eyebrows as the rest of the group looked to him.

He cleared his throat, blushing as he recalled he had, indeed, brushed her off, mostly because she was Gabi's friend and had been at the prom too.

"Who do we get sold to?" He wondered with a grimace, knowing he had brought this on himself.

"Well that's my next part..." She said, gently eyeing him, "...whoever bids the highest amount will win the boy for one night and we have arranged for special dates for each of the lucky winners." She finished with a beam.

Who in the hell was going to bid for him, he wondered? He was a moody, miserable…

"Ooh can I bid now?" A female voice piped up from the back of the room and Troy turned, his elbow still bent as his hand floated around his left temple.

Lori Hudgens was flushed and excited looking. "I want to bid for Troy!" She shared and the class tittered with laughter, causing her to blush.

"I'm right here, Lori" He said with a bemused lip curl, not unlike disgust. Not because Lori was awful, but because he could be sold to any goddamn girl in a twenty mile radius and he didn't know what he was being let in for. Now he kind of wished he had stopped and spoken to Taylor.

"I know." She said shyly and looked down and he realized he had hurt her.

"Well, at least I won't be left on the shelf." He added with a humoured grin and that's what everyone was expecting from him because they all began to buzz excitedly and even Taylor sent him a grateful smile. He didn't realize how much his mood influenced everyone else, but it seemed to make quite a difference once he had shown his support.

Maybe he could help raise money for this charity he thought. He might even go and visit the place to see what they did.

---

Gabi closed the book gently and stroked the blonde curls of the tiny body that lay on the bed before her, placing the book on the bedside table.

"Good night, angel," she said quietly, but the girl laying there was named Jade.

She left the room and closed the door behind her, turning to be faced with Troy coming down the corridor, hands in pockets, causing her to take a shocked breath in. What was he doing here?

"What are you doing here?" She demanded, without thinking, without considering the fact that these were the first words she had spoken to him since 'that night'.

His eyes met hers, albeit briefly, before dropping. She could remember the times they had held staring competitions to see who would blink first and now he couldn't even look her in the face. She realized some of the blame from that night lay on her and she had unfairly piled it all onto him. But she couldn't undo it now; she just had to live with it.

He was still staring at his feet, around him, anywhere but at her. "I came to see what the hospice does." He said with a tiny lip tug that also tugged her heart. "Seeing as I'm being auctioned for it," he added wryly.

"Tay told you then." She said quietly, wishing she'd had the courage to ask him if he wanted to be part of this scheme, instead of getting her best friend to front the whole thing just so she could avoid facing him.

His blue eyes met hers then and his hurt shone through as his eyes squinted, taking his dark lashes and screwing them together so that they were even more potent doubled up.

"You?" He asked, barely able to breathe out the word as he realized she couldn't even face him to ask him to join the auction.

She nodded, sucking her lower lip and his eyes cast there, lingering at the action, reminding her that there was a reason she was avoiding him.

He shook his head, walking on as he dropped it and his shoulders curled inwards and Gabi felt a great ripping pain rip at her lungs as she breathed in desperately, wishing she hadn't told him that. But she was hurting and she wanted him to hurt too, though she knew he did and she had just tipped the balance too far over the edge.

When she called his name and he turned, she caught the look in his blue eyes and the tears that clung at the corners and her mouth opened and froze in shock as her heart stopped pumping and sat still in her chest, before starting up and a heavy and forceful beat pushed the blood through her arteries painfully.

"I…" She began.

"Ah, Troy Bolton?" A warm voice came behind him and he turned from Gabi, Gabi twisting to see the duty manager, Evelyn, come out of her office and greet Troy. "I see you've met our resident visitor and fundraiser extraordinaire?" She smiled and Troy nodded, casting a slit-eyed look back at Gabi which made her tummy drop.

"I did," he agreed

"Well let's take you round to meet the children shall we?" Evelyn asked and he smiled back, letting himself be guided away from Gabi as Evelyn told him all about the hospice.

--

Gabi sat in her dorm as she shuffled the paperwork on her desk for the umpteenth time, her frustration increasing as she threw her Math book over her head where it crashed behind her onto the floor with a thud and she turned to look at it, seeing the spine had split from her forceful action.

"Damn!" She swore and got up to fetch it, annoyed with herself, and even more annoyed with Troy.

She was not the one who should be feeling like this, she had done nothing wrong. She closed her eyes as the pain washed over her and she collapsed on the floor with her book, her legs underneath her as she rested on her hip and placed a hand over her frowning face, a sigh leaving her lips gently.

It wasn't going to do any good dwelling in the past. She had to move on and get used to the fact that Troy was going to be around and that she had to face him and their past, every day.

She picked up her book and sat back at her desk, her phone buzzing as Taylor's name flashed up.

"Hey Tay," she greeted.

"Hey girl, listen, we have a tonne to plan for the auction, like all of the dates and the outfits for the boys…" She reeled off.

Gabi dropped her head sharply and it hit the desk with a soft bang, her forehead pressed against the cold surface but it wasn't relieving the pounding she felt there. "Oww" she mumbled as she rubbed the sore skin.

"You okay?" Taylor checked

"Yeah sure. Look, can you grab Jordie and make a start on the planning for me? Anything major then call me, but I am snowed under with Trigonometry right now…" She said desperately.

"Okay, if you're sure…but you're missing out, it's gonna be a hoot deciding what we're gonna make them wear…" She teased

Gabi smiled "Okay well leave that till last and I'll pop round after I'm done here." She promised, knowing that Taylor and Jordie shared a room in the West Wing of campus and it was only a ten minute walk.

"I knew it!" Taylor giggled and they hung up, leaving Gabi to get back to her work.

Gabi had just got her head back into her books when the door handle to her dorm room went and it cast open widely, banging back against the wall and sending her bureau of ornaments on a shaky journey as they clanged together.

"Celebrate good times come on!" Alexandra sang loudly as she wobbled in, her heels clearly too much for her in her drunken state. "Wooh Gabi!" She cheered and ran toward her, latching her arms about her shoulders from behind.

"Alex!" She complained as she cast her off and Alex staggered to her bed and collapsed on it with a giggle.

"Gabi! You so have to go to the party on Friday night. All the frat boys will be there!" She said excitedly.

Gabi rolled her eyes. "Oh well then, I must go," she said sarcastically, packing up her books to head to the library on campus.

"Gabi, pleeease?" She whined as her hand touched the door handle "I can't go alone." She begged

Gabi closed her eyes. She could use a break from her stressful work and she only had to stay for an hour then she could leave and still get some study in and get an early night too.

"Sure, why not?" She agreed and headed out, closing the door behind her softly.


	4. Game

**I should do some credits. The song at the start is Oliver James.**

**The idea for the boy auction is from One Tree Hill.**

**Ok I'm done!**

**Thanks for the reviews as always, you might look forward to my chapters, I look forward to your words so keep posting!**

**Thankies **

**Ang**

**CHAPTER 4**

_***_

"_Guess what Gabi!" Troy bounded into the Montez house and threw his bag in the middle of the kitchen floor, barging past Mrs. Montez in his hurry to get to his friend._

"_Sorry, Mrs. M!" He called and sprinted up the stairs to Gabi's room where she sat on the floor, her carpet spread with tiny pieces of paper around her that wafted all over the place as he threw her door open and he realized she was making a scrap book, a little too late._

"_Troy!" She complained, looking at him angrily._

"_Whoops, I'm so sorry…" He apologized, picking them up as she knelt up to do the same and she swatted his hands away ._

"_You're so annoying!" She accused grumpily._

"_I made the team Gabi! I did it!" He said excitedly, though he was still concentrating steadfastly on her ruined project as he collected up tiny pieces and placed them back around her._

"_What?" She said, looking up suddenly._

"_The basketball team, I got a place!" He shared and she dropped her pictures and knelt across her book to hug him awkwardly and he laid her papers down gently, returning her hug._

"_That's amazing!" She said softly._

"_I know." He grinned, taking in her shiny hair that was straight with her new hair irons and she had on a little pink vest top with a white skirt. "You look pretty." He said then._

_Gabi smiled under her lashes as she blushed "Thank you. Harry gave me a poppy today." She said and Troy's face fell._

"_Oh. Okay." He said, sitting back on his haunches and studying her. _

"_He asked me to go to the park with him on Saturday," she shared, wondering why Troy looked so sad. She liked Harry._

"_Are you going?" Troy asked carefully._

_Gabi tipped her head and pressed the corner of her lips together "It's a good job I remember everything." She said pointedly as she rolled her eyes. "We're playing yard tennis remember?" She tutted and he smiled slowly._

"_Oh sure, I remember. You won paper, scissors, stone and got to choose." He relayed slowly._

"_He said we're like girlfriend and boyfriend because we're always together," she giggled. _

_Troy watched her nose scrunch up and felt shy. _

"_You're my best friend." He said, unable to communicate his feelings further._

"_You're my best friend, too." Gabi smiled gently and began her scrapbook once more._

_***_

Sitting on the bench had always been a bummer. Troy remembered his very first basketball game when he started off as benchwarmer and it had sucked big time.

He scanned the gymnasium floor with squinted eyes as he watched the game with intense concentration, leaning on his knees to catch sight of the ball as it made its way up the court towards the opposition goal.

Chad jumped and shot for the net, the ball sinking through smoothly and a satisfying buzz sounding as the basket was confirmed.

"Yes!" He said out loud, clapping his hands together sharply and high-fiving his team mates next to him.

"See Bolton, less partying and you'd be out there," Coach said as he returned to the bench for the next face –off.

Troy rubbed his lips together but didn't say anything, his blue eyes just clouded over and his thick brows drew together in a frown. Time was running out. He wanted to wait until the Auction before he made his announcement to the team, but his body was demanding otherwise. Even his normal exercise regime was getting hard and if he couldn't keep up his basic fitness, people would soon notice.

Troy winced as he watched Chad go down and he rolled around on the floor in pain, clutching his ankle. He jumped up and jogged over with the physio and helped him back to the bench while the physio began massaging Chad's ankle.

"Ok, Bolton, out you go." Coach said and Troy looked up, his grey-blue eyes shocked and he felt a little frightened, too.

"What?" He asked.

"I'm a man down, out you go." He repeated and Troy got up hesitantly from the bench, warming up at the sidelines while the commotion died down, then he jogged out onto the resistant floor and stared an opposition player in the face as he practically growled at him, swiping the ball as it was dropped by the referee and making his way toward the basket, scoring with ease and earning congratulatory hugs from his team.

He saluted to Chad who sat on the bench and Chad nodded, a grin prettying his face.

Troy wasn't sure when the feeling started, but by his fourth or fifth run, his vision was closing in and his feet were getting heavy. He pushed it out of his mind, determined to finish the game and as he started another sprint for the basket, he felt like he was going in slow motion, his body light and heavy at the same time, his feet twisting and uncontrollable. He fell onto his front, splaying out across the floor, his heart beating at a hundred miles an hour in his chest and feeling like it was going to burst from his rib cage and finish the run for him. He lay, confused, until the blackness quickly took over and he couldn't see anything anymore.

---

Gabi sat back with a magazine and flipped through the pages. The smell of antiseptic was strong and the waiting room was mostly quiet, leaving her nervous and wondering why she was here.

She had heard at the party that Troy had collapsed during the game and been taken off in an ambulance and there was something deep inside her that was worried about him and scared for him.

His mom had been taken away in an ambulance one time and he had hated hospitals ever since. She thought about how he might feel being stuck in one without his family to visit.

On calling Taylor, she had told her that she and Chad would be visiting the following day, but Gabi had taken her bag and rushed down to the hospital that very night and she still sat here, gone 3am, waiting for news, waiting to be allowed in.

"Miss Montez?" A voice called and Gabi stood up, shyly lifting her hand to make herself known.

"Are you here for Troy Bolton?" The nurse checked, her keen blue eyes flitting up and down Gabi's shorter figure.

"Yes."

"Are you family?" She asked knowingly.

"No, but he doesn't have any and we're friends," she said. She was kind of lying since they hadn't been friends in six months but she had to see him, he would be so scared in there all alone.

"Ok, he's awake, in you come," the nurse smiled and Gabi nodded, following, wishing she had brought him something because her hands were empty and she had nothing to do with them other than twist her fingers together awkwardly.

The room was lit with a muted light and Troy was laid out in a clean bed, covers up to his chest where his shoulders peeked out and showed his hospital gown off.

He had a few wires attached and his expression was unreadable as she approached.

Troy watched as Gabi came around the bottom end of his bed cautiously, almost like she didn't want to come into the room too far because she hadn't made up her mind if she was staying and she might want to make a quick escape.

She looked around her with pursed lips, like she was biting her cheek inside, deciding where to sit and she took the seat next to the bed and turned it so she could face him, then realizing she was too low, she got up and put her bag in the seat and took the edge of the bed.

"Hi." She said and he bit his lip gently as his eyes flicked over her face. Her hair was scooped back in the top half so that her curls went down her back, her forehead marred with her worry. Her little nose was still cute and her wide brown eyes, albeit tired, still beautiful. Her lips were full and small and perched just so that he urged to kiss them and her small hands clutched at the blanket seemingly stopping her reaching out to touch him.

"Hi." He said back, wondering why she was here. Of all the people to visit him in hospital, he hadn't expected her. Not after everything that had happened. Not after the other day and all the other days they had avoided each other at the start of term.

"So you got hurt…" She said quietly, her inner fight finishing as her hand lifted from the cover to reach over and smooth his crazy fringe away from his forehead and he closed his eyes against the relief her touch brought. Her cool skin was soothing and his hair was itching him like crazy. She repeated the action until his fringe was pushed right back, like she knew it was annoying him.

"Thank you." He said softly, pressing his lips together. "And yeah, I got hurt." He said simply.

He wanted to tell her, he wanted to tell her what was wrong and she would be the only person he could have told, but not while she hated him. They had to sort things out first, or she would just feel sorry for him and he didn't want them to be friends again just because of her sympathy.

"What's wrong?" She asked, eyeing the machines and then his face and he could tell she knew he was scared. She remembered that day his mom went to hospital as well as he did and without her to help him, he probably wouldn't have been able to visit his mom at all.

"It's nothing." He lied and Gabi frowned.

He used to be able to tell her anything. Where had that boy gone? Where had those days gone? He hated lying so why was he?

"Okay," she nodded, still staring into his lifeless eyes. "I was scared when Tay told me." She admitted softly, her eyes showing signs of tears but they didn't fall.

He attempted a smile. "Don't tell me you were worried about me?" He teased and it almost felt like the old days.

Her brown eyes shot to his from where she had dropped her gaze to her hands which were now back on the bed.

"Maybe a little." She granted.

"Gabi…" He began and she knew what was coming but she didn't want to venture there just yet.

"Don't strain yourself superstar." She murmured, stroking his forehead again. "You need to rest," she added.

"Thank you for coming." He said as his eyes closed and she was faced with his long, delicious eyelashes. The ones that were dark and dangerous and curled just so, making her tummy turn in excitement.

She buried her feelings back inside as deep as they would go. She could not let herself feel anything for Troy. She never had and she never would. She knew that the kind of bond she shared with Troy was rare, but she had been so afraid of moving their relationship on, only for them to split up, ultimately losing him altogether, that she had shied away from even starting anything or allowing her true feelings to show through.

"I promised to be here for you didn't I?" She asked as his breaths fell evenly, indicating he had fallen asleep.


	5. Hospital

**Sorry this one is short :(**

**Just to let you know, their back story will all be revealed in good time.**

**Thanks for the comments as usual!**

**CHAPTER 5**

_***_

_Troy sat in the back of the car, his little face white with shock and his body still as he stared out of the window. Gabi was to his left side and Mrs. Montez was driving them to the hospital._

"_Mom, what's wrong with Ms. Bolton?" Gabi asked nosily and Mrs. Montez looked into her rear view mirror briefly, checking both children._

"_She has appendicitis sweetheart." Maria called back._

_Troy looked up and Gabi caught the scared look in his blue eyes. _

"_What's that?" Gabi asked again, her youthful curiosity in full force._

"_It's just a small thing honey, I'll explain later," Maria sighed._

"_Okay." Gabi said, clutching Mr. Teddy by the arm as she looked over to Troy with interest._

"_I don't want my mom to die." He said quietly._

"_Troy, honey, your mom won't die." Maria assured him and Gabi smiled happily but saw Troy's lip quivering and he looked like he wanted to cry._

"_Here," Gabi said and passed over Mr. Teddy to him who he took and looked at, then cuddled into his lap._

_At the hospital, Troy was taken forward into a big room by a nurse and he cast a look back on Gabi as he carried her teddy with him, his heart beating hard with fear at what might be on the other side of this door._

"_Wait for me?" He asked as Gabi held her mom's hand and sucked her thumb with her other hand._

"_I'll be here." She smiled, not understanding what was going on but still knowing Troy needed her to be here for him when he came out. "Won't I mom?" She checked with a whisper as he disappeared into the room._

"_Of course we will." Maria smiled and took Gabi into her lap as they sat outside the room._

_The car journey home was silent and when they got back to the Montez house, Troy sat with his arms folded inside the tee-pee, forgetting to put on his headdress on entering which Gabi thought was most unlike him._

_The tee-pee consisted of a tent that Mrs. Montez had erected in one corner of her room and they often had sleepovers or story nights in there. _

_She crawled in after him, placing her own headband on and handing him his headdress which he took but didn't place on his head._

"_This is stupid." He said finally, throwing it down._

"_Are you okay?" Gabi asked intuitively._

"_Your mom lied." He said shortly and Gabi frowned._

"_About your mom?" She wondered. ._

"_My mom does not have appendixisis." He said, struggling with the word a little._

"_Oh." She said, unsure what else to say._

_Troy put his head in his arms where his knees were close to his chest._

"_Troy, are you crying?" Gabi asked._

_He was silent but she saw his body shaking and she rubbed his shoulder, eventually scooping her arms around him as her mom did to her when she cried._

"_I'll always be here for you, Troy." Gabi promised, her young heart breaking at his tears and her own slid silently down her cheeks at not being able to make him smile._

_***_

Troy smiled as Taylor stood before him and showed him her sketches and ideas for the upcoming Boy Auction, her enthusiasm was infectious and he was giving his input the best he could, though he was still restricted to bed rest at least for another day.

"We could put 'Troy Boy' on your top!" She enthused and he blushed at her suggestion.

"You wouldn't really would you?" He begged awkwardly.

"I don't know, we might. Don't forget Lori…" She lifted her brows and he smiled at her.

"Hey, don't take the mickey, she might be my only bidder!" He retorted.

"Oh, sure, Troy Bolton, basketball captain. You'll be short of admirers," she snorted and he blushed again at her words.

"Hey where's the party at?" Chad asked as he brought over a glass of orange squash to Troy and Troy silently thanked him with his eyes as he guggled down the lot in ten seconds flat.

"Whoa, steady buddy." Chad grinned .

"Man, you do not know how dry my mouth is!" He grinned.

"Well, you shouldn't go blacking out in the gym should you?" Chad teased, but his dark eyes were worried. "You shoulda stayed in bed till your flu was over then you wouldn't have got dehydrated like you did, huh?" He lifted his brows and Troy nodded.

"Yes, mum," he said gravely and Chad placed his hands gently round his neck in a pretend strangling motion.

"Hey, I'm sick!" Troy complained lightly and Chad ruffled his hair.

"You better get your butt back to college soon." He said.

"Yeah, we can't have the Auction without you." Taylor added, stroking his arm.

He looked to her, thinking it was weird how she cared about him so much seeing as he hadn't spoken to her in the six months he and Gabi had been on freeze-out.

Before that, the four of them had been exactly like this, joking, friendly, caring.

"I'll be there, Tay, I promise." He said gently and she nodded, getting up.

"We have to go now, superstar." She sighed, linking hands with Chad.

"Okay, I'll see you soon," he smiled and they left him, the room seeming so much larger and more lonely with just him occupying it.

---

"Halo, halo, halo…" Gabi's beautiful voice lilted down the corridor, sending an echoey harmony around the hallways of the hospital until she finally landed in his room, carrying a 'Get Well Soon' Balloon and a massive hamper in her arms.

The balloon was getting tangled around her hand and in her hair, making her hair stick to it in static and she grinned with clenched teeth as she arrived, cussing the class for buying the damn thing.

"Ta daa!" She said as she arrived in front of him.

Troy frowned. Why was she putting on this ridiculous happy front? Did she not think he could see the tiredness in her eyes, the age-old hurt ingrained in her stiff body? The worry lines pinching her face?

"What's wrong?" He asked, sitting up and Gabi opened her mouth in shock, then closed it, pasting on a smile.

"Nothing." She said, untangling the balloon and laying the hamper basket on the end of his bed as she rifled through it. "You should see what gifts they got you!" She grinned. "I am so stealing this!" She claimed as she pulled out a can of silly string and squirted it and it fell flatly on the bed between them, like a bad joke.

"Gabi…" He said again and she chewed her lip as she continued to hide her eyes and dig through the basket.

"Gabi…" He said again insistently, holding out his hand, his heart throbbing as he wondered if she would take it.

She didn't, but she moved and sat on the edge of his bed which had now become her favourite spot.

"What's wrong?" He asked again, his eyes imploring with hers as she played with her fingers and he had dropped his hand to the bed when she hadn't taken it, but now he crept it over to her lap and touched her knuckles lightly, remembering a time he could have took her hand in his, or her whole body against his, without it being an issue. The glass wall between them was surely due to shatter or he was going to beat it down with his fists be damned the consequences.

Gabi opened her eyes and looked to him as the contact of his fingers zipped a zing through her. How could he still know her so well? Hadn't the last six months rid them of anything? Only the ability to talk it would seem, if the swirling in the pit of her stomach from his laser-blue eyes was anything to judge by.

He still had her with one look under those lashes. He'd had her the day he'd kicked her sandcastle over and he still had her now, but he didn't even know it and nor did she as she fought her feelings once more and denied herself the possibility of love through fear of losing it before it was even found.

"I hate that you know me," she whispered, sorry that she had brought the mood down to her sad one when she was trying to cheer him up.

"I don't." He said and she pressed her lips together, her whole body aching to be held by his arms again but she resisted the urge.

"I …I'm kinda struggling." She sighed. "My academics subjects are a lot of work alone, then I have dance and drama and I'm giving dance classes too to make money. My dorm mate is a serial partier and I barely get to sleep. Fun is a friend that left long ago and isn't due back anytime soon." She finished wryly and he smiled at her description.

"I know the feeling." He shared gently. "I wanna hold you so badly right now." His blue eyes met hers and she felt the impact of his words right to her core where a sparkling symphony of nerves and excitement started up, taking her breath away.

She was staring at him, wondering if he had really said it, knowing he had because his fingers stroked hers gently and he didn't drop his gaze for one second as his eyes bore into hers.

"You can't." She said softly and a tear escaped down her cheek as she got up and he reached for her, his eyes wide with fear.

"Don't go…Gabi…" He called and she turned, her tear tracks evident down her face.

"I can't just forget it Troy. And neither can you." She said and she left the room.


	6. Possibility

**Thanks for all the amazing comments. I love it when you tll me your fave bits and pick out things I don't even think about!**

**I am worried now that I've made it sound really bad and the real reason for their fight will be a let down lol.**

**Let's hope not :) Still a while until it's all revealed..**

**Sorry it's short again that's why I posted quicker xx**

**CHAPTER 6**

_***_

"_Mooom!" Gabi called loudly as she burst into the house, her sobbing loud and uncontrollable. "Mooom!" she shouted again when there was no response._

"_Hey what's up?" Troy asked as his sandy head popped into her back door behind her, making her jump with fright._

"_Troy!" She admonished, hitting his arm._

"_Hey, you ok?" He asked, coming in and he dropped his skateboard on her kitchen floor, in the doorway._

"_No, but it's a girl thing and I don't wanna talk about it to you." She huffed, her thirteen-year-old body taking a stance as she folded her arms._

"_Hey, I thought we promised." He cocked his head, stepping forward._

_Gabi stuck her lower lip out, remembering their blood bond from the camp-out on the beach the year before. That they could tell each other anything._

"_Michael Landley tried to touch my boobs." She burst out and sobbed again, her face going into her hands as she cried and Troy lifted a brow, flummoxed, but wanting to hit Michael Landley and hug Gabi at the same time._

_He took the second option and stroked her back gently as he shushed her._

"_Hey, Gabi,I'm here for you , you know that right?" He asked and she nodded against his shoulder and he sighed, rubbing her back as she snuggled to him again and he wished, not for the first time, that she was his girl._

_Boys like Michael didn't deserve a girl like Gabi. He had noticed her changing figure himself but he would never touch her unless she wanted him to._

"_It's times like this I wish we still had the tee-pee." She said softly as she pulled away._

_Troy stroked her hair back and tipped his head, leaning in to kiss her._

"_No!" She said and pushed him away, running to her room and leaving him empty handed and bewildered in her kitchen. _

_Why did she keep pushing him away? He could see it in her eyes, he knew he could, he read the longing there as sure as he felt his own. But every time he tried to get closer, she stopped him. She held hands with him sometimes; but she wouldn't let him cross that line._

_He picked up his skateboard, turning to leave when he was faced with Mrs. Montez._

"_Ah Troy, staying for dinner are you?" She said and smiled as she came in and didn't wait for him to confirm or deny before saying, "Good job I got all your favourites in, then," she winked._

_He turned his head as he watched her pass and pressed his lips together, thinking how strange it was she didn't think twice about him being here, like he was part of the family despite having his own two doors down._

"_Uh…Gabi's not talking to me." He ventured shyly._

"_Pop your skateboard outside the back door will you, honey?" Maria said distractedly, then poured him a glass of milk which she mixed with chocolate powder to make a milkshake and he hopped up at the breakfast bar to drink it ._

"_Don't worry about Gabi, she's just going through some…changes." Maria explained. "You'll have to get used to girls getting moody on you, there'll be a lot more to come." She warned._

_Troy's teenage mind had boggled at the thought of it, thinking he wished he were locked in his room with his scalextrix where he couldn't hear his parents screaming at each other and he wasn't hurt by Gabi's rejection._

"_Can I help with dinner Mrs. Montez?" He asked politely, getting down from his stool and she smiled gently at him, running her hand over the top of his head affectionately, making him blush and cower awkwardly at the contact._

"_Of course you can." She replied._

_***_

Troy clutched his room keys then dropped them on his desk as he came into his dorm room, running the heel of his hand across his forehead as he took a deep breath.

Telling the coach he had to quit the team was one of the hardest conversations he'd ever had. And now they both had to keep it quiet until after the auction so that he could at least still take part and help raise money for the hospice.

His doctor had given him his last warning about continuing to play with his known heart-condition and Troy had to concede defeat.

He could have died out there and now he had to be grown up before his time and take some responsibility for his actions.

His condition was inherited and his own mother had fallen sick at such a young age, the stress of her arguments with his father seemingly making her worse until that day she was admitted to hospital.

He closed his eyes, his lashes damp as he thought about her now, how he had lost her the fall before his senior year, how he had struggled with his bereavement, how he and Gabi had almost been torn apart by his grief. Last year was the year that everything changed.

He rolled onto his bed and stared at the ceiling as he wondered what would happen now.

Without basketball, would his scholarship be retracted? What else could he focus on that would even mean half as much?

He had a meeting booked in with the College Dean and he prayed silently that he would be able to stay here, close to Gabi, while they sorted their problems out and at least until he had helped her out of her current difficult time.

He rolled over as he thought about her parting words to him at the hospital.

She was right. They couldn't forget that night. But he sure as hell wanted to lay it to rest once and for all, no matter what it meant for the two of them as a result.

She meant too much to him to let her go without a fight. Another fight, he amended lightly in his head. But he had always been the one who was more open, unafraid of his feelings and of expressing them. But only to her.

He still struggled with why she had never reciprocated those feelings and it hurt him that she had never admitted to feeling anything for him other than friendship. He knew, deep in his heart, where he had hidden his love, that she felt the same. He wasn't just pretending to himself. He knew it, because he had seen it in her eyes. Her big brown eyes that told so many stories. He felt himself lost in them every time she gazed upon him. And yet she held back.

And he knew why she held back and he was grateful for that much, because without knowing why, he might have given up on loving her a long time ago, but still his tiny fire of longing burned with a secret hope that one day, Gabi Montez would realize she loved him too. He just hoped she realized it before it was too late for them.

---

Gabi cursed under her breath as she missed another spin in her routine in her rehearsal for her dance piece that she had to perform at the end of the week.

All that she could think of was her harsh words to Troy and how she had left him in the hospital, after promising to always be there for him.

She put her hands on her hips as she curled her lower lip over her top one and silently cursed the father she never knew, too.

It was somewhat of an unspoken subject between her and Troy, but purely by default from the amount of time he spent at her house as they were growing up, meant he had a window into her life that no-one else had.

He had seen her get excited when she got one of the increasingly rare phone calls from her dad. He had seen her delighted face and skipping around for days before his due visit. He had somehow knowingly hung around in the hours before her dad was due, keeping her company until the hours got later and it became obvious he wasn't going to show.

And he had been the one to hold her hand when they were too young for anything else, when her tears began and her hurt exploded from her small body as she wailed loudly at his rejection of her.

As the years had progressed, he had taken her into his arms, whispered soothing things in her ear, and promised he would never let her down like her dad did. And he was true to his word; he had never let her down.

But despite him proving to her he was nothing like her dad, she still held this deep ingrained distrust of men and the more attached she got, the more afraid she was of losing someone. It was just easier to stay away from love.

If she was honest with herself, she knew deep down that Troy's actions at the prom were partly due to the loss of his mom. Since last fall he had gone into free-fall and they had drifted farther and farther apart. He had buried his head in his books, determined to get good grades like his mom had wanted for him and she had become more sociable and joined the cheer-leading team, mostly to be able to stay close to him as he played basketball for the high school team.

Maybe it was the thought of losing him. Maybe she was growing up and realizing that life wasn't going to turn out like she planned. And maybe, just maybe, she was opening herself up to the possibility of loving Troy.


	7. Friends

**All the chapters are short sorry!!!**

**CHAPTER 7**

_***_

"_Just don't step on my toes" Gabi begged as she began dancing lessons with Troy. It was their first big dance at school and he had asked Gabi to teach him to dance._

_He had asked her to go with him but she had let him down and as she flicked her eyes to his, she kind of regretted it. They were fifteen and growing up fast, their different interests separating them but they still had their past in common._

_He still picked her up when she was down and she still provided him a shoulder to cry on when he needed it. The more his parents had argued, the more he needed it and she was happy to take him in, no matter the hour of the night, the state of him, or what her mom might say._

_When they had hit fourteen, her mom had stopped him sleeping over but he still climbed her balcony and snuck into her room and she still got caught letting him out in the morning._

_If she was honest with herself, she enjoyed it. She liked having his solid body next to hers and hearing his breaths softly expelling. It reminded her that she could rely on someone other than her mom and that this boy would do anything for her. She never wanted that to change._

_She had almost said yes to him for the dance but her head overruled her heart and she had said no, instead accepting an invite from a boy she didn't like as much, but she knew she could kiss on the cheek goodnight and not have to share any of her emotions with._

"_Ouch!" She hissed air through her teeth as her toe suffered from Troy's clumsy feet._

"_Sorry…" He said awkwardly, flicking his blue eyes up under his fringe and he carried on, trying his hardest to remember the steps and not mess up._

"_Just look at me," she said softly, stopping and taking his chin gently between her finger and thumb._

_Troy looked into her brown eyes and took a shaky breath. Being this close to Gabi was making him a little nervous. It was strange considering they had spent the best part of their childhood living in each other's pockets, that his feelings for her now changed his outlook and his demeanor around her._

"_Okay…" He took a breath._

"_Just pretend I am Gail and you don't want to step on me," she said of his date and she began moving again, lifting her hand from his shoulder to tip his face every time he tried to look down._

_This time he finally got it. He grinned as his tummy raced with excitement and he flourished her outwards, then back into his arms, taking her around the waist to spin her._

"_I did it!" He yelled as he span her round and she squealed as she grabbed his shoulders, giggling as he let her down, his face becoming serious as he stroked her hair and leaned toward her._

_Their lips touched, flicking a switch on inside her and the warmest, squirmiest feeling began in her stomach as his lips gently pressed against hers._

_Gabi pulled away first, staring at him in shock, instantly regretting what she had done and punishing herself for letting him do it._

"_I think you'll be okay." She said blankly as she moved from his arms and toward the bed._

"_Gabi…" He called softly._

"_I have some things to do." She said, her back still turned, but he could see her fingers tracing her lips and he knew she had felt the same lightening bolt he had._

_He chewed his lip, knowing she would never budge on this one. Every time he creeped a little further under her guard and a little closer to her heart, she yanked up the draw bridge and shut him firmly out._

_He closed his eyes, dreading to think about his favourite girl allowing another boy in where he was not allowed. Didn't their friendship mean anything? Would she rather kiss a boy she didn't know, one who surely couldn't appreciate that little lip curl she did when she was trying to be cute. Someone who didn't see her inner beauty shine? Someone who didn't love her to her very core?_

"_I'm sorry." He said again, gently, his words more to himself that to her as he regretted pushing the barrier again and finding it harder to keep going back to their easy friendship every time he did so._

_He grabbed his bag and looked over his shoulder before leaving her alone to her thoughts._

_***_

"And so the princess married the prince and they lived happily ever after…" He read from the story book, his voice soft and husky and he smiled at Jade asleep on her bed, her small body rising and falling with her breaths.

"All better then?" Gabi asked from behind him and he turned in his seat as he caught her leaning on the door jamb and he wondered how long she had been there.

"I'm a fighter." He said and took a breath as he wondered what she would say next. He was surprised she had even spoken to him at all after the way she had left the hospital.

"The Auction is on Friday." She said and he noticed her shoulders sagging and her hair was a little frizzy, like she had been dancing all day and was all tired out but had to keep trouping on.

"I know." He pressed his lips together, wanting to say so much more but knowing that she didn't want to hear it.

"What are you doing now?" She wondered lightly, bringing her hands in front of her and playing with her fingers nervously.

He shrugged. "Just going back to the dorms. Wanna walk with me?" He wondered, once again offering her a branch.

Gabi wondered if they could sling off their differences for one night and actually spend some time together. 'That night' still hung between them like a dangerous blade threatening to cut them both but as she looked into his eyes she could see he was as keen as she was to try and talk.

"Okay." She agreed.

"Okay little lady, I'm outta here," he whispered to Jade and grabbed his jacket, closing the door gently behind him as he made his way down the hall of the hospice, a smile drifting across his lips and a little bounce back in his step that he hadn't had for a while.

He really liked the feeling it gave him to come here and spend time with these kids. It gave him something he hadn't had for a long time- hope.

Gabi began walking beside him and he sauntered along, staring at the floor.

"You're good with them." She was the first to speak and he lifted his brows.

"Not as good as you." He returned easily.

"You come, Troy. At least you do that much." She defended .

"You take an awful lot on, Gabi." He said with concern etching his face.

She smiled wryly. "I know."

"You always did," he said fondly and cast her a little grin as she flicked a glance at him and knew he wasn't accusing her.

"And you never rested when you were ill, either," she added pointedly.

"I'm not ill anymore." He said, but his body was tensed at the mention of his hospital visit and she didn't miss it. He was definitely hiding something and she had a deep ache inside her that wanted to know what it was. But she would have to open her heart to him and let him in if she wanted him to trust her like that and right now, she hadn't planned on how to do that just yet.

They were almost back to campus now and he headed toward her dorm as he looked up into the night sky.

"Did Taylor tell you what to bring for Friday?" She checked, turning their chat from the scary ground of the past back to a subject she could cope with.

"I miss you Gabi." He said instead and she was floored by his admission. Why did he keep doing that? First at the hospital, telling her he wanted to hold her, now this.

But she knew he wasn't trying to push her into anything, he never had. He was just being honest and she knew she felt the same, but the words seemed so difficult for her. Like she was plucking them from her heart and each one brought a stab of pain.

She took his fingers gently as they faced each other at the steps of her dorm building.

There were so many words she could say, so many emotions tied up inside her that she longed to let free and the one thing that had always stopped her was her fear.

Only now she didn't need to be afraid of losing him, for she had lost him for six months and they had found their way back to each other. But there was something new inside her that wrapped invisible lines around her heart and stopped her from telling him how she really felt. He didn't deserve to be hurt. She had to really make sure she was ready for this before she gave herself up to these feelings.

"Me too." She said gently, unknowingly stroking his fingers, then dropping his hand as she ran into her building. Troy stood and watched her go, but not forlornly. He had a soft smile on his face as he realized there was hope for them yet.

---


	8. That Night

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**Please keep commenting if you want more, it boosts my confidence and your comments inspire me to write!**

**Thank you**

**CHAPTER 8**

_***_

_Troy walked into the cubicle in the boy's toilets and glanced down at his dark grey suit with a museful grin as he unzipped his trousers to pee. They'd got him in a suit, but his bow tie remained loose around his neck. There was no way he was going to wear a tie, that much was certain._

_He heard voices behind him at the door, recognizing Billy's voice as he came in with a friend, bragging about Gabi being his date. He was hidden from their view but they didn't seem to mind too much who heard their conversation._

"_She is hot, dude." Billy said "I can tell she wants it"_

"_She wants it bad," his friend agreed._

_Troy's blood had ran cold as he heard them discussing how Billy could get Gabi into bed. They were talking about her like her feelings didn't matter, like all that mattered was their gratification._

_The thought of Billy forcing himself on Gabi was too much for him to bear and he stalked from the toilets as he heard Billy leave, swinging him around by his shoulder as he met him outside the toilets._

"_Hey, I heard what you said." Troy said quietly, his whole body tense with his anger._

"_Yeah, and?" Billy asked with a smug flick of his lip._

"_And Gabi's my friend, I wont let you do that to her." He warned, again his voice barely audible but threatening and dangerous all the same._

"_What are you gonna do about it?" He wondered with a laugh and Troy took his collar, leaning up close._

"_Touch her and you die." He said seriously, his eyes ice cold._

"_She's gonna be beneath me mewling like a cat and you can't do anything about it." Billy suggested lewdly._

_Troy saw red at his words and reached his fist back, connecting with his nose just as Gabi came from the girl's restroom and saw the scene with a shocked gasp, running over._

"_How could you?" Gabi screamed at Troy as she knelt beside Billy, his nose bleeding from where he lay on the floor from the force of Troy's blow._

"_Wait…" Troy frowned, his anger bubbling up inside him as he flicked his fringe from his eyes in annoyance, both at her words and his wayward hair._

"_No Troy! Look at him!" She cried, her eyes streaming with tears as her face screwed up into an unrecognizable expression, Troy's gut clenching at the sight._

"_Gabi, listen to me!" He begged, his temper causing his words to come out in a rage as he lunged forward menacingly._

"_Don't!" She threatened quickly, her eyes wide with fear and he stopped, feeling Chad's arms go under his armpits and restrain him unnecessarily._

"_Get off me Chad!" He begged, his hair messy, his suit jacket torn from the swing he'd committed to strike Billy, his voice sore with his emotion._

"_Just go!" Gabi begged._

"_You don't understand!" He argued, still being held back, wanting to drop to his knees and take her tearful face in his hands, remind her how gentle he was and that there was a reason for this outburst. He didn't want to shout it out in front of half the school what Billy was planning._

_But she should know him better than that. Why was she siding with the scum who lay beside her? Why didn't she trust him?_

"_You're just jealous!" She accused hotly and Troy was stung by her words._

"_You don't know what he said about you! I'm your friend! I was protecting you!" He argued._

"_Protecting me? By ruining my prom? By punching my date and breaking his nose?" She wondered._

"_There's a reason I did that!" He shouted, tensing up and feeling Chad's restraining arms again._

"_I don't want to hear it Troy!" She sobbed, frightened of his violence, not liking this side of him and how she brought out the worst in him._

"_Gabi, I love you." He said with heartfelt emotion. Chad finally let go of him as the gathered crowd stared at him in shock, Gabi's own mouth opening as her eyes went wide, their deep, dark depths swirling with mixed emotions._

_The crowd seemed to look to Gabi for her response as Troy stood there, panting, his eyes begging her to let him explain._

_He begged for her to say it back, for her to show that ten years of friendship, ten years of unrequited love, was worth him making this grand gesture._

"_I don't love you." She said gently and dropped her gaze to her hands which were nervously clutched together._

_The crowd gasped but Troy's own breath was caught in his throat as he stared at her head, her beautiful dark curls falling over her delicate shoulders, brushing the straps of her black and white prom dress._

_He couldn't speak, the tightness in his chest was overwhelming, he couldn't breathe and his lungs were on fire as Chad tugged him by the arm as he continued to stare at her, willing her look at him._

_Finally Chad tugged him hard enough to pull him away and he cast a look over his shoulder where he connected with Gabi's brown eyes and they were broken and spoke of emotions that he had never heard her say._

_Troy roughly pushed Chad away as he started to sprint away from the prom wildly._

_He stopped for breaths when he couldn't see anymore because his tears blurred his view._

_He sank to his knees and laid his face in his hands, his pain coursing through his body like a wild raging fire. _

_Things would never be the same again he realized with great clunking clarity. He'd finally made the move- the make-or break, life-changing move. And she had denied him, completely, undeniably, hurtfully. _

_Her betrayal stung like the tears against his eyes as he cried for the soul-mate he would never claim._

_***_

"Oh my god, there's no way." Troy said as Taylor took his wildcats shorts and held them up , indicating this is what he would be going out on stage wearing.

"Yes way, Bolton. Most of the boys are going to be topless," she reasoned calmly.

"Taylor, I don't think you understand. People are going to be staring at me." He argued gently, frowning and crossing his arms.

"Well, I have body paint. They won't see the body paint with your top on. Plus you'll get more bids if you flash your chest." She grinned.

Troy sulked as his eyes slitted in a squint. "What in the hell are you going to paint on me?" He wondered then with alarm.

"Troy boy." She shrugged; like it was a given.

"I thought you were kidding about that?!" He whined.

"Quite moaning!" Taylor argued, "Now, go get changed," she sighed and Troy took the shorts from her and trailed away, staring at them as his face screwed up in disgust as he processed the idea of strutting around on stage topless.

"Aw, man." He murmured softly, heading for the changing rooms and he caught sight of Gabi as she flitted around backstage and she looked up, as though feeling his eyes on her and she paused, sending him a reassuring smile.

---

Troy flinched as Taylor dug the body paint crayon into the side of his back, unknowingly hitting his ticklish spot and he dived to one side sharply.

"Hey! Troy Boy does not have that many letters!" He said knowingly, looking over his shoulder as though he would be able to see what she was writing.

"I'm just writing 'For Sale'," she explained. "Is that okay?"

"Troy Boy for sale?" He repeated, unimpressed, his lip curling up at her.

"Oh, stop with the attitude." She mocked and he grinned a handsome grin for her as she pushed against his shoulder playfully.

"Where's the star attraction?" Gabi asked as she came in from her manic duties as backstage manager. She had just finished making arrangements with the auctioneer and she was too curious to wait and see Troy and had given on her urge to see him before the show began.

"Hey, I am a person -with feelings." He sulked gently as Gabi came in and caught sight of his bare and muscled back that Taylor was writing on.

"Here," Taylor said as she handed her the crayon. "You can finish the 'for sale' part, seeing as I keep getting his ticklish bits." Taylor joked and Troy widened his eyes playfully as he let a smile curl on his lips and he felt Gabi come up behind him.

Gabi took two deep breaths before even getting near him. She had forgotten just how alluring his naked body was. Or had she? Of course she hadn't. Once she had seen his sculpted body, it was very hard to wipe it from her memory banks, but she had surely tried. Only now here he was, living, breathing, almost naked and waiting for her to paint on him. Oh lord.

She gently pressed into the smooth skin just near his spine and she felt him tense a little at the contact.

"Relax, it won't hurt." She promised. "I'm not as harsh as Tay."

He smiled to himself at her words and let himself relax as she finished up the job and he stood from the make up chair, turning to face her and Gabi was blessed with a close-up look of his perfectly muscled torso. His shoulders had always been strong and dependable, but he seemed to have even wider shoulders now from his growth as a man. His pecs were defined but not overly built and they led down to a taut and rippling almost-six pack tummy that held the cutest belly button she had ever seen and those slim, toned hips peeked out above his Calvin Klein's waistband and basketball shorts which rested low enough to make her wonder what was beneath them. But she knew above all, that his arms were her undoing. She knew he worked them hard and she knew the hard work paid off. Many a time she had grabbed his bicep, been held by those strong arms, against that solid but comforting body of his. And as he stood before her now, his arms gently bulging as he balled his hands and released them nervously under her gaze, she felt that familiar old tug at her stomach, and places deeper within as the wisps of desire slowly curled around her and left her breathless.

"Will I do?" He asked understatedly.

Gabi snapped from her perusal of his naked upper body and flushed as her eyes met his.

"You look great, Troy." She assured him, figuring there was no harm in being honest.

"Everyone's gonna be staring at me." He said awkwardly and Gabi knew he had always felt uncomfortable taking his top off, which was odd considering his physique.

"You look great." She said again, softly and her words brought his eyes to hers, searching for something more and for the first time in ten years, she felt ready to start giving it.

She wasn't ready to give up on Troy yet, if he wasn't ready to give up on her.

"Come here," she said softly as she pushed him onto the seat gently so his back wouldn't meet the upholstery but so she could reach his hair and she grabbed a bandana from her pocket and wrapped it around Troy's head, fiddling with his hair and stepping back, smiling as she tilted her head and Troy peeked at her with wide eyes as if to say 'done yet?'.

"It suits you." She confirmed as she stood back to let him get up.

Troy checked his appearance in the mirror and moved his head this way and that, thinking the headwear did kind of suit him.

"Hey, thanks," he said and turned to her.

Gabi knew in that moment that she wanted what Troy wanted. It was the strangest moment for it to happen and in the strangest way, stood there, staring at each other as they prepared for the auction, but she guessed there was no rhyme or reason to love, it just was. And seeing him all Troy-like and feeling their old fight dissolving like the sea spray into a breeze, made her see clearly for the first time. Of course she loved him. Of course she was afraid of losing him and almost had, in the hospital that night; but she didn't want to come that close again.

"Okay, let's go," she said and led him out by the hand, their unsaid words creating a silent bond as they appeared before Chad and Taylor together, their linked hands which quickly dropped, not going unnoticed by their friends who shot a look at each other and they tried not smile.

Gabi smiled tightly and moved out toward centre stage, casting a look back at her friends as they chatted and she could see Troy and Chad teasing each other.

She bit her lip, knowing she had to go out in front of this baying crowd to introduce the show before the auctioneer took over.

"Hey, you'll be fine." Troy assured her gently from her shoulder and she turned, smiling up into his familiar eyes, for one second feeling sad that they had lost their friendship over one stupid fight even if the pain of that night wedged in her chest like a lump of brick.

"Good luck, Troy Boy." She said drily and he opened his mouth to retort, but she disappeared behind the curtain before he could and he closed his mouth and pursed his lips instead.

---

Troy heard his name being called and shot a nervous look at Chad, who had already faced the crowd and been 'sold' for two hundred dollars.

Chad nodded at him and he nodded back, slipping through the curtain onto the stage that was smoky with dry ice and the wall of screams and shouts was deafening as he came out and awkwardly sauntered down the walkway, squinting against the lights to try and find sight of Gabi in the crowd, because she wasn't backstage and he could use a familiar face right now.

"Here, ladies and gentleman, we have the captain of the team, the hero of East High, Troy Bolton…" The auctioneer rambled on and Troy cast a look back at him, knowing he was talking bullshit but shrugging it off as he thought of the charity.

He grinned at the sound of his name and a few girls screamed louder so he turned at the end of the catwalk and lifted his arms in a mock muscle-man pose, pouting his lips and looking over his shoulder to get a rise from the crowd and he saw Lori jumping up and down at the front.

He pulled out a single rose that he had tucked down his shorts- handed to him by Taylor- and he held it out toward Lori who beamed at him and took it, her smile touching her eyes and that's when he caught sight of Gabi, hovering at the back of the crowd, her arms folded, her lips curling in an appreciative grin at his gesture and he smiled back at her, getting up as the auctioneer began taking bids.

He blushed when they got to two hundred and fifty dollars and he swung his hands in front of him, his balled fists meeting in the middle of his body as they bounced off each other, his nervous energy flowing out at the contact.

He couldn't make out who was bidding, but he could see Gabi wasn't one of them and as the hammer went down on the final bid, he stared in shock at the auctioneer as he confirmed he had indeed been sold for five hundred dollars.

Jesus. Someone out there must like him an awful lot, he mused.

He scurried back stage, sending a quick wave to the crowd and Chad bounded up to him as he appeared behind the curtain.

"Dude! You rock!" Chad said and hugged him.

"That's a lot of money, man." He said seriously.

"It's awesome. Think of the charity," he said and Troy smiled.

"I'm gonna go put a top on. When do we meet the winners?" He checked.

"Right now, dude. I'll wait for you." He promised.

---


	9. Winner

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**CHAPTER 9**

Gabi licked her lips nervously as she waited for Troy to come out to the meet and greet area. Taylor was successfully matching winning bidders to their partners and Gabi clutched Troy's name tag and prayed to God that she had done the right thing.

That money should have gone towards her dance gear but she had resigned herself to another term of hand-me-downs just to have this chance to spend time with Troy.

He wandered around the backstage area as he rubbed his hand across the back of his neck in a familiar-nervous gesture and Gabi saw Taylor point him in her direction and he came over, a soft breath of relief releasing from his lips as he smiled at her.

"Hey, Tay said you know who my 'owner' is." He commented with a little lip tug that Gabi followed closely.

"Yeah, I do," she said and lifted the name tag, turning it so he could see she was holding his name.

His brows lifted swiftly into his fringe, his bandana causing the skin there to ripple and Gabi lifted her eyes to his bravely, wanting to see his reaction.

His blue eyes met hers, understandably confused, but deep and hopeful too.

"You bought me?" he asked huskily, sending a deep throbbing between her thighs that she had tried to fight off for so long but it was no use, his voice was reaching her in places she had ignored for too long.

Gabi grazed her teeth over her lower lip, and then lifted her gaze to his again, leaning up and curling her hand around the back of his neck, softly kissing his lips.

The touch of her lips to his was exactly like two years ago when he felt a bolt go through him at the contact, only this time, he felt it deeper inside of him and the sweetness of it was excruciating and delicious at the same time. His eyes screwed shut at the almost-pain of their joining at last and he pulled back with the shock of it all.

Troy stood, dazed and still as he took in Gabi's soft, beautiful face. She had bidded five hundred dollars for him and now she was kissing him, staring at him like she had just realized he was there.

He frowned "When…?" He began but she stopped him, getting on her toes to kiss him again, which he didn't hesitate to return, his arms going around her waist as his lips pressed into hers, tasting her sweetness, the aching, tingling longing sweeping over him in a heady excitement at the reality of her kiss.

Gabi loved his strong arms around her back as she locked her hands at his neck and let her petite body stretch up his longer one, her fingers running amok in the hair at his neck, leaving it sticking out and mussed as she felt him smile into their kiss then pull away slowly, demanding her gaze onto his as he did so.

"Hey, you two!" Chad called. "This is a charity thing you know! I don't think kissing is included in the price for my boy here," he said to Gabi who smiled but blushed becomingly and unlinked her fingers from his neck as he stood straight from their embrace, but he tucked her hair behind her ear tenderly, then linked his fingers through her left hand as he turned to Chad.

"The kissing is free." Troy quipped and Chad shouldered him gently.

"Hey, buddy, you sly dog, you. How long have you two been…?" He winked.

"We haven't. Until just now." Troy said pointedly with one eyebrow raised.

"Okay, in that case, I'm just gonna step back and you two just pretend you ain't seen me…" He joked and they chuckled, Troy looking to Gabi.

"So when's the date night?" He checked.

"Tomorrow." She said gently. "Can we…talk?" She asked furtively.

"Sure," he smiled easily. "My place has rats." He warned.

"My place has Alex." She returned.

"Okay, my place it is then," he said and they split briefly so he could shower and Gabi could finish clearing up before they both met up, tired and hungry and ready to drop.

---

"Mmm, oh my god, Troy, that was amazing!" Gabi enthused.

He flicked a look to her where he lay next to her on the couch, the deep cushions supporting their bodies. "Don't say that too loud," he teased and she giggled, scrunching her nose and he looked down on her face with adoration.

"You can cook a mean spag bol." She complimented.

"You're beautiful when you scrunch up your nose." He said and Gabi was taken aback by his openness.

She smiled as he leaned on his arm and reached over, fiddling with her curls, deciding if he should kiss her and she reached up for his neck to pull him closer, letting their lips touch gently and he tilted his head to deepen the kiss, his tongue flashing against her lips and dipping into her mouth as she allowed him access.

She moaned softly under his weight as he tipped his body across onto hers with gentle insistence and she arched her breasts against his chest, her nipples hard and aching and the pleasure swam across her skin in sweet, rippling circles as she rubbed her body against his harder one.

"Gabi, why now?" He wondered, rightly so, she thought as she sighed and stroked his fringe back as some of it escaped from his bandana and she tucked the strands into the soft band, out of the way.

But how could she explain? How could she explain why it had taken her so long to realize what was right in front of her was worth the risk? All she wanted right now was to feel his body against hers and they could worry about the rest later.

She kissed him again, their tongues meshing insistently as their bodies pressed against each other with need.

"Make love to me, Troy," She begged as she stripped him of his tee top and his eyes scanned hers with gentle question.

She felt him hard and heavy against her thigh, his breaths short and panting as his hand trailed down her cheek, down her collarbone, cupping her breast so delicately; she felt like she might implode from his tenderness.

Troy dipped his head to rest his lips against her hair. "I saved myself for you, Gabi." He whispered in her ear and she gasped softly, clutching at his shoulders as she tried to push him back so she could see his face but he was hiding because his lips brushed her jaw then he curled his body, his forehead going against her shoulder where she slipped her arms around him and hugged him.

"Me too," she returned gently and then he found courage to face her, smiling into her beautiful face as her words hit him deeply in the gut, his already tight and aroused body becoming harder with need.

He groaned as he pulled her body close into his, his hands resuming their gentle and thorough exploration, slowly stripping off her clothes until she lay naked to his appreciative gaze. His lips trailed her body, brushing across her collarbone and pressing soft kisses as he dipped lower, finally taking her nipple into his hot, wet mouth and sucking the budded peak as she bit out erotic cries beneath him.

He rolled over to strip off his basketball shorts and Gabi let her hands wander over his nearly- naked body freely, his muscles to her touch like a familiar-foreign feeling and his lips to her mouth like heaven sent-honey that she couldn't stop sipping kisses from.

His hands didn't stay still for very long as he rolled back toward her and let his hands glide over her curves, slowly tracing her stomach and down between her thighs where she was hot and damp and aching for him to fill her.

"Troy…" She gasped as he gently, persuasively dipped his finger into her dark, damp place, her thighs spreading to allow him deeper access as he dipped another finger into her, feeling her reacting to his gentle touch and loving that she was all his, just as he was hers.

Her eyes fluttered open with surprise and shut with pleasure as his fingers teased her and he was glad he waited, he was glad they had been brought back together because he wouldn't have wanted to share this with anyone else.

"Please…" She begged as his thumb slid in to join his fingers, meeting her nub and bringing her a sparkling pain that had her gripping his fingers inside of her.

But Troy sighed gently as he felt his arousal subside, knowing he wouldn't be able to fulfill her, because the medication they had placed him on to help mend his faulty heart, restricted the flow of his blood and this was but one side effect of the damn pills they had warned him about.

"I can't, baby, not tonight," he whispered as his gut clenched and he hoped she would see past his problem and let him love her all the same because he couldn't take her rejection on top of everything else.

"Oh…" She moaned on a gasp as she felt her whole body surrender to the sensations his hand brought her. His thumb gently, insistently pressed against her sensitivity and brought her a warm-cold, tight-hot, moaning, clenching climax that had her calling his name and orgasming over and over as her peak met and lifted with his coaxing.

Finally she bathed in the shower of velvet starry sky as her bubble of ever-growing pleasure burst and her body softly relaxed as he gently withdrew his fingers and enveloped her into his strong, secure arms. His overwhelming love for her was surely evident as he held her as tightly as he could, cradled in his arms, afraid if he let go that she would leave him and his heart couldn't cope with being broken all over again.


	10. Date

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**CHAPTER 10**

"Okay, dude, tell me you are not wearing that for your date?" Chad asked Troy as he came into his dorm room and Troy rolled his eyes, his boxers and white vest not his chosen outfit for tonight but he was having trouble deciding.

"I don't know what to wear." He admitted and Chad ruffled his hair

"You are such a girl! Just throw anything on. Girls love your skater boy vibe." He assured him and Troy pursed the side of his mouth as he flicked his eyes to one side.

"I'm sure," he said drily and picked up the black trousers from his bed and jumped into them, adding a white shirt and buttoning it up, wondering which tie he should wear.

"Here, this…" Chad said, picking up a slate grey tie and wrapping it around his neck and fixing it for him, stepping back and smiling.

Troy checked his appearance, making sure his hair wasn't too wild. He slipped on his matching black jacket and took a nervous breath.

"Okay I'm good." He smiled and the pair of them elbowed each other as Chad grinned at him.

"Okay my boy, don't be late." He joked and Troy blushed.

"I might be back sooner than you think, with our history!" He joked.

---

"Gabi, tell me you are not wearing that for your date?" Alexandra asked as Gabi opened her dorm room door and threw her books down, a little insulted by Alex' comment even though she was wearing her dance trousers and a comfy old tee shirt that she had worn for her dance lessons in the afternoon.

She rolled her eyes up. "Do I look like I'm dressed for a date?" She asked drily and turned back to her with her hands on her hips and found Alex holding up a hanger with her strapless black party dress on it. It was way too short and showed off her boobs but it WAS kind of perfect.

Gabi nodded with a pout, picking out her leggings and some high heeled sandals, matching up some jewellery and she held the co-coordinating items up to Alex who nodded, but ripped the leggings from her hand.

"Go bare, be dangerous," she dared her.

"I'm going to shower." She stated and eventually she was dressed, made up and ready to go.

"That's better!" Alex approved

"Right, I guess I'm ready." Gabi said at last, nerves flitting in her tummy at the thought of seeing Troy again after their night together.

She had woken in the early hours of the morning, kissing Troy's forehead as she gently stroked his hair back but she'd had to leave, there was far too much to do before their date. She had written him a note to let him know she was leaving because she had to, not because she wanted to and she hoped it was enough to assure him.

---

"You're wearing a tie." Gabi observed as Troy stood in her dorm doorway and his eyes flicked up her figure slowly, seemingly enjoying the lack of coverage on her legs until he reached the strapless top half of her dress and he licked his lips, making her tingle with his blatant show of attraction for her.

"Wow." Troy said finally and held out the bunch of flowers he was holding toward her lamely.

"Thank you," she blushed, sniffing the petals gently before placing the bouquet inside her dorm.

She grabbed her purse, shutting the door behind her and she looked at him, twisting her lips, unsure what to do, so she curled her fingers around his bicep where he stood next to her, his eyes still lingering down her body until he began to walk.

"Wow." He said again, to himself, letting out a whoosh of breath through his left hand which he had curled into a roll.

"Are you okay?" She wondered.

"Yeah, just…" He looked round, his eyes lingering on her face this time, tracing her features like she knew his fingers had the night before. "Wow," he said a third time and tensed a little, walking on toward the dorm building door, which he held open for her and she stepped through and he led her over to his truck.

"I wish you'd stop saying that," she muttered. "You're making me nervous." She admitted.

"I'm making YOU nervous?" He said incredulously as he held her hand to help her into his truck, cringing at his mode of transport. If there was ever a time he wished he owned a Porsche, it was now.

Her legs flashed temptingly at him as she twisted into the seat.

"Wow, wow, wow." He muttered as he crossed the front of the truck and he must think she couldn't hear but Gabi awkwardly fiddled with her fingers all the same.

"Troy, I only saw you last night, you know. This isn't a first date." She said gently, wondering why he was so damn nervous because she wasn't used to it and it was rubbing off on her. They'd shared something very intimate but she felt like they were starting all over again.

He looked to her with a soft longing. "It's _our_ first date." He said quietly and Gabi stared at him, realizing the weight of his words.

She smiled gently "So it is. Well then, let's just pretend we're going digging for worms for one of our legendary fishing trips shall we?" She joked instead and he chuckled, his grip on the steering wheel loosening somewhat.

"I don't think worms are on the menu at the place we're going," he smiled with lifted eyebrows and pulled out of the parking lot.

---

Troy looked at Gabi furtively as they waited for their food to be served and he wondered how to broach the subject of last night.

He may have woken with her in his arms, spooning her in the most delicious way, but he had fallen asleep again with a happy smile and when he'd woken the second time, she had vanished.

She had left a little note so that he knew she hadn't had second thoughts, but he still couldn't help the swirl of worry that chased in the pit of his tummy.

He'd skipped his medication today just in case tonight presented him with another opportunity to make love with her and this time; he didn't want to ruin it.

"How was your day?" He asked lightly, smiling as the waiter delivered their food.

Gabi lifted her gaze. "It was good. I was finishing up the details with the charity, making sure everyone had their details for their dates tonight…"She trailed off and it struck him how awkward they were sat here in formal wear, making nice over dinner.

He had an image of her laying in his tight arms, muttering his name as he drove her insane with his touch, abandoning herself to his hands.

He slipped out of his jacket and loosened his tie, reaching across the table for her hand and she looked at his long, gentle fingers, slipping her hand into his with a little smile.

"I'm glad you bought me," he said gently, scooping a forkful of his starter into his mouth and chewing as their fingers remained linked across the table and Gabi did the same.

"Me, too. It gives us a chance to talk about everything." She hedged bravely.

"You know what?" He asked gently. "The past is in the past. Let's just start over." He suggested.

"But I can't pretend it never happened. And I don't believe you can, either." She cocked her head.

He sighed heavily, like he didn't know how to tell her that it didn't matter any more. She knew she had broken his heart by telling him she didn't love him and she knew he loved her enough to forgive her that and still hold a torch for her. But she didn't know if they really could just forget the past and pick up fresh with that night hanging over them.

Something had changed the day he went to hospital and she didn't know what it was, but he seemed to be at calm with everything, like he knew something that she didn't and the thought scared her at the possibility that tinkled at the back of her mind.

"I can." He promised simply, his eyes meeting hers directly and the look there stole her breath away, as well as her heart, if it hadn't already belonged to him.

She nodded gently.

"I wonder how Tay and Chad are doing with their dinner on the river?" She changed the subject.

Troy sat back and grinned at her as their starters were taken away and their main meals were delivered shortly afterwards.

"You are so beautiful." He said instead and she was becoming used to his random compliments, but she still blushed under his gaze.

"You looked pretty hot yourself out on stage in those shorts," she shared with a little lip curl that indicated her desire for him.

"That's why you couldn't keep your hands off me." He nodded with an amused grin as he remembered her fervoured kiss.

"Maybe," she smiled shyly. "A girl doesn't kiss and tell." She said as she ate her pasta, her lashes flicking up to allow her glimpses of his face as he too ate his meal, wondering what tonight would bring.

"Are you having dessert?" He offered in a silky voice that started up a throbbing in her most intimate part.

"You mean I can't have you for dessert?" She asked with a whisper across the table as she leaned over and gently tipped his fringe from his eyes.

Troy's breath caught in his throat at the promise she held in her voice and he prayed to god his body would keep up with him this time.

Gabi led him from the restaurant and away from the car park which he frowned at, pointing to his truck.

She smiled "I have a surprise," she said gently and she took him to the community hall where the college team played their big games, taking a key out from her purse and letting them in, still leading him by the hand as they wandered into the huge empty stadium, the lights flickering on as she turned the switches.

She crept down to the shiny surface and slipped off her sandals, grabbing a ball and bouncing it once.

"Here," she said and threw it to him.

Troy caught it and his eyebrows lifted as he looked back to her. She had dropped her dress in the space of those three seconds and she posed before him in her underwear.

"Let's play ball…" She whispered in his ear as she came up to him and took the ball from his hands.

"I can't." He said gently and she looked at him, frowning. "I quit the team." He said, his voice quiet but still echoey around the vast empty space.


	11. Love

**Sorry if it didn't make sense… she was being seductive asking him to play ball but Troy found this the time to tell her he left the team…and why…**

**CHAPTER 11**

"You quit the team?" Gabi asked, dropping the ball with her surprise, suddenly feeling very awkward at stripping like this, thinking it would be a sexy surprise for him.

"Yeah," he twisted his lips, his hands jammed in his pockets as he tried not to touch her. His eyes ate up her semi-naked body and he relieved the pressure from the front of his trousers. "The hospital trip…it was more than just dehydration." He ventured.

Gabi gasped, suddenly everything clicking into place "Last night…?" She guessed quickly and Troy's brows lifted, his eyes surprised at her fast deduction.

He shrugged awkwardly. "It's the pills they gave me." He explained, his voice tight, not sure how she felt about his lack of performance.

Gabi eyed her dress, in two minds whether to put it back on, so she did and zipped it up, then walked over to Troy and stretched up to wind her arms around his neck and she kissed his jaw before she gazed into his eyes.

She licked her lips and tried to stop her tears. "Please tell me it's not what your mom had." She begged, already knowing the answer.

He nodded and she let some tears cascade her face, feeling his arms slowly wrap around her waist where he held her body even tighter into his and she could feel his hardness against her.

"When you went into hospital, I was so scared that I had lost you- and my chance to tell you." She added as her brown eyes peeped at his, her hurt spilling down her cheeks.

"Tell me what?" He pushed.

"That I love you. That I always did." She shared, biting her lip.

His own tears fell at her admission, her words ones he had waited so long to hear and now that they were here, they hurt his heart even more. He carefully moved some hair from her face with his thumb, reaching forward to kiss her. His kiss was strong and emotional as their faces touched and shared the wetness of their tears, the salty liquid mingling like their tongues as they released their hidden passion and Troy grasped her up against his body needfully, not really sure this moment was for real as she whimpered and clutched at him with the same degree of want.

"I love you, too Gabi," he said into her ear against a tight, panting breath that he expelled, his arms bulging and tight as he held her and had no intention of letting go. "I'm sorry I couldn't…last night…" He began as he let her down gently to her toes.

"Shh…" She said, brushing his lips with her fingers. "Last night was amazing" she said honestly, knowing that every moment of his hands upon her was amazing, more amazing than any other man who had touched her.

"I thought we could have a sexy moment here, where you won your first trophy with the College." She smiled, then giggled.

"I'm sorry, I ruined the moment." He smiled lop-sidedly, making her love him even more.

"Nothing is ruined," she assured him, stroking his fringe from his eyes.

"You do know the date rules were that we had to give each something?" Troy asked.

"Yes, I have yours right here," she smiled as she patted her purse.

"Me too," he said as he pulled a long box from his jacket pocket and looked at it as he brushed his lips together, then held it out to her.

Gabi flicked her lashes up to him and took the box, taking the lid off, her eyes wide like her parted lips as she took in the necklace, the letter T with a red stone on the top corner of the T.

"Oh my god…" She whispered, taking it out, fingering the pendant.

"Do you like it?" He checked and she gaped at him.

"I love it." She said breathlessly.

"Good, because I have admission to make. It's not exactly new. I bought it to give you prom night. I guess I hoped things would turn out differently," he smiled with a little shrug and Gabi's eyes teared at his admission and she couldn't hold back from throwing her arms round his neck and kissing him.

"Thank you." She said, feeling that wasn't enough, but not being able to say anymore.

"You're welcome." He said huskily in return, his arms about her waist once more.

"Oh, for you," she smiled shyly, bringing out the small package from her purse as she pulled back.

He opened the ring box to find his class ring from school, the one he had given her when her dad hadn't turned up one time and he had told her that he would always be there for her and his ring was symbol to that.

He squinted at the inscription on the inside 'I love you, Wildcat'. He frowned at her quizzically. That was the school team name; he was playing for the Cougars at college.

"I had it inscribed to give you at prom, too," she said gently. "Let's just say things didn't exactly go to plan for me, either." She mused with an ironic smile.

He smiled back. "Let's go back to my dorm." He suggested and she nodded, tucking her hand into his as they left the large, empty hall and headed back to the dorms.

---

"Be gentle with me…" Troy begged teasingly with a grin as Gabi's hands drove into his hair from his neck and he rolled her onto the bed as their passion re-ignited in his dorm room.

He was rid his jacket and shirt by her keen fingers coming into his door and he'd unzipped her dress as he had backed her up towards the bed, letting her drop it with a becoming grin as his hands finally laid against her bare skin and now he lay between her thighs, stroking down her face with a shaky hand as she tangled her fingers into his soft hair and her hands on that small part of his body were sending shivers down to his toes.

Her lips connected with his, their softness alluring as he closed his eyes, the familiar ache in his gut fanning out as her tongue flicked against his and he shifted as her hands moved between them, flattening against his sides where she ran them up his tummy and took his vest with them, stripping it from his torso as he panted above her.

She arched into him, her softness reaching his hard groin as she begged for him to press into her and his eyes turned from blue to a dark slate colour like storm clouds about to cast out rain.

His groan as he connected his clothed but heated groin to her almost- naked softness was one that sent a call to her most secret part and a slickness cast through her in response, bringing her hands to his trousers urgently as her desire turned on a knife edge.

He let her undo his belt buckle, straining and still as he watched her small hands work and bring his trousers down so far that he could kick them off awkwardly and he leaned over to unfasten her bra, kissing down her collarbone until he reached her soft fleshy mounds, taking her in his palm, brushing his thumb over one nipple as he flicked his tongue over the other and Gabi thought she might be lost in this labyrinth of aching sensations until she felt his mouth dip lower to her belly, his fingers sliding off her underwear as his mouth kissed down her hip, her thigh, his thumbs brushing the sensitive skin on the inner side of her thighs and then she felt his tongue part her, flicking into her darkness and pulling an extraordinary moan from her throat as she ran her hands into his hair to stop him and hold him there in simultaneous pleasure and pain.

She didn't know he had planned on making love to her, but as he stripped his boxers and crawled back up her body, her eyes questioned him, though her mouth sat swollen and parted, still recovering from the onslaught of his kisses.

"I thought…" She began confusedly.

Troy placed a finger over both her lips, smiling gently. "It's okay, tonight I can." He promised her.

"Are you sure, I don't want you to…" She didn't finish because he kissed her again, drawing her back into the heady world of their passion and his heavy arousal against her thigh was a stark reminder that his body was needful.

She reached for a condom and applied it as she stroked him in her hands, letting him bring her knee up and spread her legs to lay between them as he watched her face and he lifted the T from her chest gently and fingered it, his eyes shining with his happiness at her wearing his name with pride.

He entered her gently, sinking into her hot centre, her body welcoming him and clenching around his size as he pushed deeper, her eyes wide and pupils dilating at the sensation of him filling her. She might never have let anyone love her like this before, but the wait was worth it to have Troy's body own hers in this way.

"Oh my god, Gabi…" He breathed as he finally sheathed himself in her slickness and lay still against her as she panted beneath him, her own mind lost in the feeling of him inside of her.

She had expected pain, she had been told it would hurt; but she was writhing from the pleasure cascading her body like a waterfall. She couldn't speak, she could only merely moan as he moved against her and he began a slow, gentle ride against her hips. His arms were cradling her, his hands brushing her hair from her face, his lips kissing her face, her neck, her chest as he curled to reach and that brought him into her at such an angle that she cried out against the pleasure of it so he repeated the action, loving the sounds from her mouth as she gave her body up to him and it seemed that all the years of waiting for this moment were truly worth it.

Her eyes brimmed over with the tears of her love for him but he panicked she was in pain so he leaned over and whispered into her ear. "Am I hurting you?" He asked gently, stilling against her.

"No…" She breathed out, her voice a mere pleasured sigh. "It's amazing, Troy, you're amazing…" She encouraged with a little buck of her hips that started his rhythm again and he never wanted to stop.

His inexperience was unnoticeable as he thrust into her gently, over and over, bringing her body alive with this zinging, buzzing awareness and she could feel her orgasm building from the pressure of his body against hers.

As he breathed out, she breathed in, as he thrust, she bucked, as he moaned, she gasped and they seemed to be in harmony as she crept to the dizzying heights of her climax, only letting herself reach the top as she felt his own body stiffen and begin to shudder as he released, his seed spilling into his condom as her body clenched him tightly inside of her as she crashed back to earth with him, where he collapsed into her arms.

He rolled over to alleviate her of his weight, removing his protection carefully and then curling her into his arms with great care, where she placed her cheek against his bare, inviting chest and she heard his heart beat racing from their joining, just like her own.

Only then, as her body dragged from the mist of desire, did she realize with alarming reality what he had had done. Only then did she click that he hadn't taken his medication. So that they could be together. And as much as she had enjoyed every moment of their love-making, knowing it was their first time not only together but their first time sharing their bodies with anyone, she wouldn't have gone through with it if she had known it was at this price.

She closed her eyes against the pain that hit her chest in her fear of losing him. Why had he taken that risk? Hadn't he taken enough?

"Hey, are you okay, baby?" Troy asked softly as he felt her tense and heard her breathing quicken.

She looked up to his soft, blissful face, his hair all messy and his beautiful naked body relaxed. He was the happiest she had ever seen him.

"I'm fine. I love you, Troy," she said as she let her tears slip from her eyes un-noticed but Troy did notice them because his skin became damp as she lay her face back down and he wondered if she was crying because she knew what he had to tell her.

He knew that his heart disease was serious and that he had pushed his chances for too long with his basketball playing and now it was time for him to slow down and take a rest, but she couldn't know that because he had only found out today the consequences of his actions and as her tears wet his skin, he felt helpless to soothe her. He was afraid and she had always been able to sense his fear, being afraid for him too.

She was holding him like she never wanted to let go and it had taken her twelve years to get there, but here she was, loving him back, just as he had always hoped.

"I love you, too. I always have." He said gently as he let his strong arms wrap her into his body and he closed his eyes as he let his tiredness wash over him.


	12. Night

**Thank you everyone for your amazing reviews. Sorry to say this story has come to an end but keep an eye out, I will have a new one up very soon!**

**Thanks**

**Ang**

**CHAPTER12**

_***_

"_Just hold my hand and I promise everything will be okay," Troy said calmly as Gabi shivered next to him in the darkness._

_Gabi knew that trick or treating was a bad idea. She looked to Troy who was wearing a black cloak, his skeleton mask atop his head and his blacked out eyes making the blue of his pupils stand out in the dark like beacons of brightness. Her mom had even blacked out his lips but the make up was wearing off as he kept licking them. _

_His fingers curled around hers and clasped gently as she continued to shake against the biting cold air, her own witch's costume not proving very warm._

"_It was your idea to take a short cut through the graveyard." She sulked, like twelve year olds do._

_Troy looked to her and realized she was really scared and it was because of him. He tightened his hand as they trekked on._

"_I'm sorry." He said, not sure what else to say._

_Gabi looked up, her brown eyes softening at his sad expression. "Did your mom and dad argue again?" She asked softly, knowing he was putting off going home._

_He nodded as he ran his lips together and then his startling eyes flicked to hers. _

"_Why don't we sleep in the tee-pee tonight?" She asked as she tipped her head thoughtfully._

_Troy unlatched their fingers and took off his black cloak, wrapping it around her shoulders as he took her hand once more, the barrier of the material now between their skin. _

_He liked the feeling of belonging somewhere and when he was curled up in his sleeping bag in the tee-pee, looking at Gabi with her plaited hair and 'Indian' hat, his own 'headdress' making her giggle. He felt like he was part of something._

_They would talk about the universe and comic books with a torch standing up on the floor for light._

"_Okay." He nodded and they made their way back home, being greeted by Mrs. Montez who hugged them both and wrapped them in blankets as she brought them into the warm house and gave them a mug of cocoa each._

"_Does your mom mind if I stay over?" Troy asked as they lay facing each other, wrapped in their sleeping bags, Gabi's curly hair amok around her and intriguing his sleepy eyes._

"_No, she likes you," Gabi said tiredly, closing her eyes so that her long, dark, curled lashes fell on her smooth, high cheeks._

"_Do you like me?" He asked softly, hoping she had heard._

"_I like you." She answered and sighed gently as sleep reigned._

_Troy watched her until her breaths fell evenly and he felt like he could protect her from the world, just like she did him and he reached over to turn off the torch._

"_Sweet dreams, Gabriella." He whispered and lay back to sleep himself._

_***_

The sun was streaming through the closed curtains with bright insistence as Troy squinted his eyes against the onslaught, Gabi laying in his arms being about the most amazing sight he had come across in his short life.

She gently snuggled into his body, her soundful sigh of satisfied pleasure letting out across his chest and he felt his body go tight with his absolute love for her as he continued to watch the sun beams glisten across her naked back.

His heart beat heavily with his emotions, knowing that one day he might have to say good bye to her and knowing that would break his heart more than the weakness he suffered there from inheriting the gene from his late mom. He had only just got her, he didn't want to let her go already and he prayed to god that he wouldn't have to.

He wanted to wake up to her like this every morning and take her to bed and make love to her every night, make her his wife, bear her his children.

He at least wanted a chance to show Gabi what it would be like to be loved by him. He hadn't even begun to show her what being loved felt like. He wanted to see her smile every day, touch his lips to hers, and tell her those three words until she was fed up hearing them.

He wrapped his arms tighter as he beamed into the bright sun beating down on his face. He loved Gabi with all of his heart and she wouldn't go a day without knowing it.

---

Gabi woke from her sleep and lifted her head sharply. Her dream was vivid in her mind. The image of Troy walking away from her, the light of the sun spilling around his body which was dressed in white and he stopped and turned as he waved at her with a big smile on his handsome face before he continued into the blinding light which was so strong that as she stared into it, she had been brought from her dream with a sharp tug.

She didn't know what it was that made her do it, but she placed her face back to Troy's chest before she looked at him and she listened very carefully for a heartbeat. She was too afraid to look at his face because she knew, she knew before she even looked at him, that he was no longer with her. And when she placed her head against his chest it was confirmed because she couldn't hear a beat. She lifted herself from his side and took his wrist, testing his pulse there, slowly, with deep fear as her heart pounded loudly in her ears. She looked into his face and let out a sob as she took in his pale skin and his serene features, knowing there was no breath coming from him because he lay still and motionless next to her, his life stolen from his young body by the broken heart that he had carried his whole life without knowing.

"No!" She screamed, her utter agony revealed in her anguished cry.

"I'm not ready yet! Don't you understand? I'm not ready yet…" She sobbed, curling into his lifeless body and holding him, hoping she was wrong, that he was really still alive and she had another chance to show him how she felt, how much she loved him.

But his arms remained limp beside his cool body and she gave into the great tearing pain that ripped at her and drew vicious racking sobs from her body as the reality dawned on her that he had gone. Troy was gone and she was too late. She was too late to show him how much she loved him. And now he would never know.

He would never know he was the love of her life.

Why had she denied him? Why hadn't she accepted him before all this? Why didn't she listened to him on prom night?

She was hysterical, inconsoleable as the paramedics rushed in, everything hazy to her, just flashes of colour as they moved about the room and she sank into a heap, punishing herself for passing up those many, many chances she'd had at love.

It wouldn't come around again, life just didn't work like that. He'd been right under her nose for more than ten years and now she was paying the price of denying her fate.

They tried to pry her away from him, Taylor tried to comfort her; even Chad attempted to bring her away from his body but they all realized it was no use.

Gabi wouldn't let go.

---

The grey, heavy clouds threatened rain above her, but they didn't spill any liquid. The tears that ran endlessly from Gabi's eyes seemed to be enough for the brewing storm as they held back their carriage while she wandered through the graveyard with her coat wrapped tightly around her, carrying a single rose as her shoulders bore the weight of her emotions.

She reached his headstone and crouched down, touching the cold marble stone as though it would bring her closer to his once-warm body, wanting so badly to be able to feel his strong arms protect her once more.

"I love you, Troy," she managed to whisper before her voice cracked and her sobs erupted softly, her pain clawing at her chest as she tried to hold back her emotions so she could say these words in the hope he was somewhere listening.

"I never said it when I should have and it was too late, it was all too late." She realized belatedly, punishing herself for all those years she could have had with him and had wasted by pushing him away. What she would give to go back and do it over. What she would give to have Troy next to her, holding her hand, telling her she was beautiful.

"I am so glad I had one night with you. One perfect night," her voice hitched as she took a sharp breath, unable to say anymore as her grief over came her.

She lay the rose on the damp ground, the earth still fresh and not marred by grass yet. "I'll miss you for the rest of my life." She vowed as she sank to her knees on the muddy ground and the clouds gave up their heavy burden as fat splots of rain fell on her and around her, matching the painful tears falling from her eyes as she cried for her loss.

**EPILOGUE**

Everybody wants to be loved  
Every once in a while  
We all need someone to hold onto  
Just like a helpless child  
Can you whisper in my ear  
Let me know it's alright

"It's been a long time coming," Gabi read from the inscription of his headstone, smiling at the irony of the chosen song words he'd requested which were now faded and mouldy from years of abuse from the elements.

It had been a long time for her, eighty years to be precise and now she was almost ready to join him again, in that unknown place where souls escape to.

She had kept her vow to him that she had made crouched here that day; all those years ago, when his loss was still as fresh as the earth.

Now the area was overgrown, wind battered, but still so, so precious. Like her only link left to him, along with the necklace that hung round her neck and had so many people asking 'What does the T stand for?'

She smiled whenever she was asked, because his face would pop before her eyes, like his very being was in front of her and not buried beneath the ground. His eyes would shine with their blueness, his hair would flop in his face and she could almost feel his hand take hers and link their fingers like he had, so many times. If she closed her eyes, really tight, and dug deep enough inside; she could remember the feel of his strong arms around her and how his body had loved hers, so briefly, yet so intensely that his stamp on her soul could never be erased.

If anyone ever asked her what it stood for she had always said his name out loud, reminding her that it wasn't all a dream, but that she'd had a love so deep that it really had lasted a lifetime.

And his name was the last word from her lips as she passed, a smile across her lips as she thought of finally being reunited with her love, the only love she had ever truly had.

The love that she felt for Troy.

---


End file.
